as your last breath's taken away
by skibagrant
Summary: Kaidan is a spectre candidate who is tracking the head of the Blue Suns to a far off planet in the Terminus Systems. He meets Shepard - the head of the Suns in the area. Things do not go well.


Korus was a strange planet.

It was essentially a ship graveyard littered with the dead and dying pieces of all types of aircraft from all species – decades old Turian cruisers sat rotting next to Batarian ships. Even Alliance vessels- stripped of their working parts- sat in hulking heaps on the destitute planet's surface. The Quarians often came planet side to salvage what little they could, only to be quickly chased away by the large Blue Sun outposts that laid claim to the area. That was the main reason Kaidan was here.

The Blue Suns were starting to become more of menace and Kaidan had traced contaminated shipments of eezo and iridium back to Korus – whatever had cause the issue to occur had led to explosions that had occurred all over Council space. It needed to be stopped- quickly- so the Council sent him. Kaidan wasn't given a team – he didn't have a backup just in case shit went south (and they normally always did when it came to the Suns), he was just given resources and told to complete the job. Basically, he was a spectre without the fancy induction.

When he got planet side, Kaidan tapped into the Blue Suns comms and listened. There was no noteworthy information, just mentions of a 'Shepard' – a bunch of the mercs seemed to be terrified of the guy and Kaidan assumed he was a Krogan that was more than the average brutal.

"Where is Shepard?" A terrified merc asked on a private line – it was comically easy to crack into.

"Patrolling with Vakarian." Kaidan paused – he had heard of Garrus Vakarian in the past. The slippery bastard had escaped Council justice more times than he could count. The idea of a Turian voluntarily working with an assumed Krogan was odd, but not unheard of.

"Any idea where?"

"They saw a ship land at the old space port yesterday." Kaidan blanched – he knew someone had to have seen the shuttle drop him off. He was hoping that there had been an unobservant guard; instead he had alerted the head. "Shit." He whispered, but continued to listen to the comms.

"Whoever that is better hope the planet kills 'em first. Shepard is brutal, for a human." The other merc murmured in an agreement and Kaidan took a moment to process what he heard. The idea of a human heading the Blue Suns was…odd, but he didn't have time to think about that. He needed to cover his tracks, erase any hints that he had been here, had to-

He heard the gun cock before he felt it. Kaidan sagged slightly and took a deep breath.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" The voice sounded human and he tensed. If this was the Shepard that those mercs were speaking of, he was going to be in for a world of hurt. The barrel of the gun was applied with more pressure to the back of his head. "Search him." A Turian came into his view – he assumed it was Vakarian – Kaidan held his breath, as all of his weapons were removed.

"Anything?" The human spoke with authority.

"Alliance. Looks like a spectre candidate. Doesn't appear to be here with anyone else." The Turian looked in him in the face. "What's your name soldier?" Kaidan kept his mouth shut. "Fine, we'll get it out of you one way or another."

"Garrus." The human sounded exasperated.

"Yeah, yeah. No threats."

Kaidan felt a surge of annoyance at the mention of Garrus' name – if he wasn't so sloppy he'd be half way back to council space with a prisoner in hand. As Vakarian walked away, the barrel of the gun was removed from the back of his head. He slumped over slightly in relief, but straightened up as he saw a figure appear in his eye line.

"Up on your feet, soldier." The man in front of him was tall with a buzz cut not unlike those in the Alliance. He had bright eyes that were now focused on Kaidan – he felt awkward from the stare. The man's hand was extended and Kaidan took to help himself stand fully. "You're in the wrong place, Alliance." The man's booming voice echoed slightly in the area.

"If you're gonna kill me, just do it already." Kaidan said with a voice that carried more confidence then he felt. "I assume you're Shepard, right?" The man nodded. "Then get rid of me!"

Shepard chuckled. "Oh, I don't want to kill you." He gave Kaidan a smile and then glanced back to Vakarian. "Take him back to the outpost an put him in one of the cells. "I'll deal with him later." Kaidan hung his head as he felt his hand get tied behind his back.

The Blue Suns were going to destroy him.


End file.
